Every village has its ‘misfits’ – weirdos living at the outskirts of the community, who are only more or less tolerated by the rest of the residents. The reasons for their isolation are manifold – it can be illness, disability, but also life experiences such as war, unrequited love and political persecution. Many of them found solace and expressed themselves through art, which was often referred to as naive and primitive, as well as Art Brut. This was how they made their living, or searched for the meaning of life. In the process, they also became custodians and chroniclers of village life – its history, customs, problems and beliefs, which formed a peculiar syncretism of past and present. This mixture of the primitive and the modern delighted Ludwig Zimmerer, a German press correspondent turned collector of Polish folk and independent art. This fascination was also shared by filmmakers, including Andrzej Wajda. Some of them, like Wiesław Dymny, Henryk Kluba, Witold Leszczyński, Grzegorz Królikiewicz, Wojciech Smarzowski, and Jan Jakub Kolski, tried to picture this world of ‘village weirdos’ in their films, sometimes resorting to putting them in the role of their protagonists. This was the case in Kolski’s Jańcio Wodnik [Johnnie Waterman], Słońce wschodzi raz na dzień [The Sun Rises Once a Day] by Kluba and Dymny, as well as Leszczyński’s Konopielka Królikiewcz’s Tańczący jastrząb [The Dancing Hawk] and Smarzowski’s Wesele [The Wedding]. Each of these films showcases the village outsider or a character who becomes an outsider in the course of its plot. At the same time, the audience ventures into the seemingly exotic world of the Polish countryside and learns about its history from a hitherto unknown perspective.